Resumen de De hygiënisten in Nederland 1850-1880: een nieuw begrip van openbare en veterinaire hygiëne
Examining the historical process of ‘Framing disease’, as Charles Rosenberg proposed in the 1990s, reveals that the characteristics of health problems such as epidemics can change over time. The change - in epidemics as in specific diseases - accompanies changes in scientific thinking as well as in culture and politics. Thus framing a disease involves both its nature and measures taken against it. This article considers the history of public health thinking in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century by examining the transformation in thinking about the etiology and prevention of cholera between 1830 and 1870. It is argued that changing the concept of cholera from a contagious disease to a partly miasmatic disease coincided not only with a fundamental change in scientific methodology, but also with political and deep cultural changes in Dutch society. These changes gave birth to a modern structure of public health, introducing a new perspective on the ‘peoples health’ and the possibilities of prevention. In this context the veterinary inspectorate and other veterinary institutions were established in the 1870s and 1880s. It must be added, however, that public and veterinary health became effective very slowly and did not prosper until after 1900.
